The End-of-Semester Grading Process, Google Documents, and a GREAT Thank You Note!!!

Readers,

After allocating almost 100% of my time yesterday to grading final examinations and feverishly grading undergraduate research reflection papers and online assignments for the past two weeks, I am FINALLY FINISHED! This is quite an accomplishment, because I never finished by 1pm on the last day of finals (my first final started at 8 am on that day).

Now it is time to back up my courses and student submissions on blackboard. Usually I have a lengthy "back up" process ahead of me. However, this time I used Google Documents for a majority of my assignments and I will not have to individually save each assignment in PDF format (except for discussion questions and test data). Yay for end-of-semester productivity!

Today, we have our graduation ceremony and I always look forward to seeing our communication graduates walk across the stage. In addition, I always look forward to wearing my regalia (two times a year). Congratulations graduates!

By the way, I received one of the most wonderful thank you cards yesterday from one of today's graduates. She wrote about how I helped her obtain an internship at a local cooperation and this internship became her NEW JOB! I am VERY excited for her!  I LOVE this job!


Sincerely,

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Ask a Millennial Professor Friday! - The Future of Netflix

Readers,

Good morning! A few years ago, I started a feature on my blog titled, "Ask a Millennial Friday". After a few weeks of the feature, my teaching schedule became VERY busy and I received less questions via e-mail.

However, for the past two weeks, I've received A LOT of questions via e-mail. Here's this week's question:

My name is [student's name] and I am an [name of university] journalism student working on my final paper for my Inquiry class. I am writing about the impact of Netflix on DVD rentals and the company's aim to push itself more into the instant streaming realm, alongside the free sites Hulu.com and various TV network sites. I stumbled upon your blog and saw your post about possibly using Netflix in the classroom, and would love to take a moment of your time to discuss your opinion about where Netflix is headed, socially, and what you think we as consumers should expect to see with online streaming in the next few years. I would greatly appreciate any moments you may have, be it over email or on the phone, and I'd like to emphasize that this paper I'm writing is intended only for my professor's eyes. 

My response - Personally, I feel that Netflix is one of the most ingenious products and/or services available to the general public. As a Netflix subscriber, I LOVE the service for my personal use. I watch TV shows and movies through the service and then I make a list on my Google Docs to rent from the library (or to purchase for my classroom). Although I think they would be great additions to my classroom, I am quite afraid of showing Netflix movies (or shows) in my classroom because of copyright infringement, but I do not mind showing TV shows (Undercover Boss on CBS) via steaming websites.

I think this industry will continue to grow and flourish for personal and professional use. I think public and community libraries will definitely jump on the streaming video bandwagon, because it would increase their services (and products) without having to consume addition library storage or checkout space. This is a huge concern for community libraries. 

Professors can also benefit from streaming videos in their classroom. My classrooms are located in a different building from my office and it is very inconvenient to leave resources (i.e. - DVDs) in your office across campus. In addition, the students would be exposed to foreign and independent films that they would not normally watch at home nor would they have access to these films in their community.

I have over 250 movies in my instant queue and most of them are British films and independent movies. If I did not have a Netflix account, I would drive to 50 miles to the metropolitan library to view the films before showing them to my students in class.

Netflix will benefit from creating university and community library accounts for their company. Libraries other similiar types of organizations can enter into a five-year (or more) contact with Netflix and might be an advantage to month-to-month users. I envision this "university account" working similarly to a library research database. Some databases only allow one viewer to view an article at a time. Residence halls could also greatly benefit from this service. The amount of students with Wii systems and HD televisions is growing every year.

I think the future is filled with services focused on video downloads and streaming websites/services. The number of video offerings within each genre will increase and the the number of users will definitely increase. This increase in the number of users will be accompanied by more satisfied users who will experience a more customized viewing experience. However, as the amount of users increase, the amount of bandwidth will need to increase as well.

Thanks for your question! What do you think?

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

TCU Career Services iPhone and iPad App!

TCU Career Services Website

Readers,

TCU's Career Services office created a Career App (https://careers.tcu.edu/resources/careerapp.aspx) that focused on Business Etiquette, Creating Your Personal Pitch, Dining Etiquette, Interview Preparation, Interview Questions, and After the Interview.

What are great resource for our students! Do you have any apps for your classroom OR student services?

Check this app out!

Let us know what you think!

Career-Services Department Jumps on App Bandwagon - Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards

Millennial Professor

iPad Pilots in Higher Education - iPad Pilots

http://fairfieldmirror.com/2010/02/03/an-ipad-a-day-gives-students-an-a/

Readers,

Tonight, I received a great e-mail from Mr. Jim Siegl (@jsiegl). He created and maintains a list titled "iPad Pilots in Higher Education". This list of more than 145 institutions is an EXCELLENT resource for higher education professors who research the effectiveness of iPads in secondary and post-secondary classrooms.

Here's the link - iPad Pilots in Higher Education - iPad Pilots

Several Texas institutions are featured on the list. I hope that our university is able to utilize iPads in my proposed course for Fall 2011 (Communication Technology and Social Media).

If you have any institutions to add to the list, please let Jim Siegl know!

Sincerely,

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Can Students Survive Without Social Media?

Readers,


Sometimes, I ask myself - "Can college students actually survive without technology?" Well, one college actually decided to see how college students would react to a sans technology campus. This university blocked Twitter and Facebook on campus computers. Here's the interesting caveat, I wonder if the students accessed the technology on their cell phones. hmmm.... Would this be considered "cheating"?

Well, the article addressed this as well...

Critics noted students could visit the sites with smartphones or by walking to nearby buildings with free WiFi. But Darr said the point was not to prevent access so much as to get people to think critically about the role of social media in their lives.

In my opinion, this was an ingenious strategy to enable college students to see what their lives would actually be like without having technological interruptions every few minutes.

Here were some interesting "findings":

But during the ban, 33 percent of students reported feeling less stressed. Twenty-one percent said they used their normal social networking time to do homework, while 10 percent said they read online news.

Some students changed their study methods. Darr cited a Facebook-based tutoring effort that was failing to explain a complex biology process to students; they grasped the concept only after a face-to-face meeting during the blackout, he said.

Here's the link to the article - http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2010/12/10/pa_college_social_media_blackout_wins_converts/

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

American Council on Education Report - "Recent Graduates Say Degrees Are Worth Time, Money Spent"

Readers,

Today, the American Council on Education released a reported, "Recent Graduates Say Degrees Are Worth Time, Money Spent".

This article featured the following figure:

Prepare for employment	28%
Prepare to be responsible citizens	11%
Teach to learn and think critically	31%
Conduct research that benefits community	1%
Serve the community	2%
Prepare to solve problems facing our country	17%
Produce innovations that fuel economic development	6%

This report focuses on the curricular and extra curricular benefits of higher education.

Here's the link to the article - Nearly 90% of Young Alumni Say Going to College Was Worth It, Survey Finds - Government - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Enjoy!

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

iPad Pilots at U Houston and CDI College Take Off -- Campus Technology

Readers,

As all of you probably know by now, I am a technology junkie. However, I love integrating technology in my courses. Unfortunately, I have only seen two other iPads (aside from my own) on campus and they belonged to the Communication Department and to another department on campus. As of today, I have not seen ANY students with iPads OR e-readers. However, a large amount of the students and faculty have iPod Touch devices and/or an iPhone.

Today, I read an article titled, "iPad Pilots at U Houston and CDI College Take Off -- Campus Technology". This is an AMAZING venture from the University of Houston's College of Communication and the U of H Educational Technology department. They have a course titled "Information and Communication Technologies", in which they equipped their students with iPads for the next eight weeks. Here's some more information about the project.

Kudos to the University of Houston right now. I would LOVE

to provide my students with such an exciting experience! I wonder where the research will be published. :)

Here's some additional information about the project:

"At the University of Houston a joint project between the School of Communication and the Education Technology and University Outreach organization will research the impact of 'anytime, anywhere' learning over the final eight weeks of the current semester. A team of professors has created an iPad application for an Information and Communication Technologies course with 30 students. COMM 3353 iApp, which will be used in an elective class in the journalism program, contains learning modules with video lectures, textbook material, presentations, tutorials, and simulations"

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.